Gas Blast Kills 11 Coal Miners

BEIJING (AP) — State media say an explosion at a coal mine in southwestern China has killed 11 miners and injured six.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the accident occurred Friday at the Diaoyutai mine outside Yibin city in Sichuan province. It cited the provincial work safety administration as saying the fate of one missing miner remained unknown.

It says the injured workers are being treated at a hospital while rescue work continues. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Such accidents are usually caused by a failure to ventilate methane gas from the shaft. China's mines suffer frequent explosions, floods and cave-ins, although miner fatalities have fallen about one-third from a high of nearly 7,000 in 2002.